The present invention relates to a cigarette filter assembly machine.
As described, for example, in British Patent No. 2,241,866, filter-tipped cigarettes are produced on a filter assembly machine, along a first portion of which, each cigarette portion in a first succession of equally spaced cigarette portions is connected, at a rolling station and by means of a connecting element of sheet material, to a corresponding portion in a second succession of cigarette portions to form a tobacco item hereinafter referred to as a "double cigarette". Each double cigarette consists of two cigarette portions separated by a double filter made integral with the two cigarette portions by said connecting element, the central portion of which encloses the double filter, and the end portions of which each enclose one end of a respective cigarette portion.
According to the above British patent, once formed, the double cigarettes are fed successively through a cutting station where they are cut transversely in half to form two successions of oppositely oriented single cigarettes. That is, downstream from the cutting station, the cigarettes in each pair of single cigarettes formed by cutting a respective double cigarette are arranged with their filters facing and substantially contacting each other.
According to the above British patent, the two successions of single cigarettes are then fed to a turnover station where each single cigarette in one succession is turned over and fed into the space between two adjacent single cigarettes in the other succession to form a single succession of equioriented single cigarettes, which are fed to the output of the filter assembly machine and from there to the input of a packing machine.
On known filter assembly machines of the above type, the single cigarettes are normally quality controlled by devices normally associated with the single succession of equioriented single cigarettes, and which provide for determining correct filling and surface finish of the single cigarettes, and for rejecting any not conforming to given standards.
Due to the high output capacity of modern filter assembly machines and the speed at which the single cigarettes are fed through the machine, the above quality control devices are seldom capable of correctly checking all the single cigarettes. One known solution to the problem is to provide control devices for both successions of single cigarettes prior to the turnover operation, or at any rate before the two successions of single cigarettes formed by cutting the double cigarettes are combined into a single succession of equioriented single cigarettes.
On known machines featuring a quality control device for each of the two successions of single cigarettes formed by cutting the double cigarettes, the control devices are superimposed in relation to the operator, thus making them difficult to inspect and maintain.